EU’s new circular bioeconomy strategy - European forest fibre and paper industry ready to lead

Press Release | 11 Oct.2018

EU’s new circular bioeconomy strategy - European forest fibre and paper industry ready to lead

CEPI, the European association representing the forest fibre and paper industry, applauded today’s release of a more tangible Bioeconomy Strategy laying the conditions for creating a truly circular, low-carbon bioeconomy in Europe.

“The EU’s new Bioeconomy Strategy rightly puts the emphasis on bridging the bioeconomy, sustainability and circularity. It also goes beyond research to deploy bioeconomy innovation and investments in Europe,” says Sylvain Lhôte, Director General of CEPI, the European forest fibre and paper industry “being a mainstream renewable and recyclable material industry, we have the means to put this strategy into action.”

The industry has set out a transformational strategy in a first of its kind low-carbon bioeconomy Roadmap, which aims at advancing industry’s full potential of the bioeconomy, circularity and innovation. This vision for the industry triggered around 5.5 billion EUR of investment in Europe in 2017. The industry is committed to leveraging the new EU Bioeconomy Strategy to accelerate the pace of transformation and investment in Europe.

What works in the Strategy?

The new EU Strategy also has a clear focus on reducing Europe’s dependence on fossil resources and promoting sustainably sourced bio-based products. The 10bn euro earmarked for a new food and natural resources cluster in the Horizon Europe R&D programme will encourage industry’s bioeconomy research and investments. The new “circular bioeconomy investment platform” to de-risk funding for private investments will also be key in boosting investments and deploying novel biorefineries in our industry.

Note to editor:

CEPI is the European association representing the forest fibre and paper industry and supports more than 1.5 million jobs in the forest-fibre and paper value chain (almost 10% of the bioeconomy-related jobs in the EU). Building on its renewable and recyclable roots, the industry sources more than 92% of the pulp it uses from the EU, while more than 72% of the paper it produces is recycled.

Discussing how to better bridge the bioeconomy and circularity will be at the forefront of the debate taking place next week, 16-17 October at Paper & Beyond, a new event concept that unites bioeconomy and circularity leaders from across the globe in Brussels. Learn more on how the European forest fibre and paper industry is leading the debate on a low-carbon circular bioeconomy in Europe at www.paperandbeyond.com.